The BIF - Blätterer Ideal Frauenfreundschaften

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The BIF - Blätterer Ideal Frauenfreundschaften
Title page Die BIF, undated
description lesbian magazine
language German
publishing company Self-published by Selli Engler (Germany)
First edition 1925? / 1926?
attitude 1927
Frequency of publication monthly on the first of the month
Sold edition unknown number of copies
editor Selli Engler
ZDB 2537183-6

The BIF - Blätter Idealer Frauenfreundschaften , subtitled monthly for female culture , was a lesbian magazine in the Weimar Republic , published in Berlin from 1925 or 1926 to 1927 . It was the first lesbian magazine in the world to be independent of men in terms of publishing, editorial and content.

Publication dates and edition history

Edition of the BIF, No. 1, unknown year, probably from 1925 or 1926
Großbeerenstrasse 74 in Berlin, editorial office of the BIF
Edition of the BIF, No. 3, 1927

The BIF was self-published by Selli Engler , according to the imprint it was based in Großbeerenstraße 74 III in Kreuzberg . Engler was a publisher, editor and editor at the same time, because of financial constraints and illness, Engler had to interrupt the publication twice. The BIF was printed in Mitsching's book printer in Berlin, the 1927 booklets were delivered by the GroBuZ magazine distributor, and there were advertising agencies in numerous large cities in Germany.

As far as is known, only three editions have survived, one issue No. 1, the year of which is unknown, and issues 2 and 3 from the year 1927. The only known originals are owned by the German National Library in Leipzig, the Spinnboden - Lesbian Archives and Library , and the Gay Museum and the Magnus Hirschfeld Society in Berlin and the library of the University of Wisconsin – Madison have copies.

The exact dates of the publication of the BIF are not certain, as two of the three issues do not contain any dates. In research, 1924 or 1926 were long mentioned as possible first publication years, but in the meantime 1924 has been excluded, so that the first edition appeared either in 1925 or more likely in 1926. The other two surviving issues date from 1927, in the same year Engler discontinued the BIF and began to write for the magazine Frauenliebe . In issue no. 3 / II it is noted that “The“ BIF ”no. 5, 6, 7, 8/9, 10/11 from the year 1924 can still be delivered.” However , the actual appearance of these issues is valid as unlikely.

The BIF had a volume of 24 pages and appeared as a “monthly” on the first of every month. In 1927 it cost 1 mark and could also be subscribed to. In the last issue 3 / II, Engler announced a reduction in size while at the same time lowering the price to 0.50 marks, the issue then only comprised 12 pages.

Editing and content

The BIF was the first lesbian magazine to be entirely in the hands of a lesbian woman; all other magazines appeared in male-dominated contexts or were editorially influenced by men.

The BIF mainly published literary works such as short prose and poems as well as occasional historical biographies and excerpts from theoretical texts. It was their intention to provide a high-quality addition to what they considered to be an insufficient range of contemporary lesbian magazines. In contrast to other lesbian magazines such as Frauenliebe or Die Freund , she did without reports and advertisements on the city's lesbian social life.

All of the editorial content written for the BIF came from women, many of the texts were from Engler himself, alongside her, especially Olga Lüdeke and Ilse Espe appeared more often. Of the ten authors known by name, five later also published in Frauenliebe. In addition to her texts, there were also excerpts from works by men who were editorially selected as of interest to the readers, such as Alexandre Dumas ("Lady Hamilton"), Magnus Hirschfeld or Otto Weininger .

reception

There is hardly any contemporary reception of the magazine. Franz Scott wrote in 1933 that the BIF had dared "artistically and literarily excellent approaches", so that the BIF was superior to the other lesbian magazines Freund, Frauenliebe and Garconne in terms of level and only failed because of the undemanding of the target group. Scott's judgment was later clearly criticized by Hanna Hacker in 2015 as biased, contradicting and one-sided. A photo by Magnus Hirschfeld from 1927 has been preserved as visual evidence , which shows two issues of the BIF from the archive of the Institute for Sexology , along with other magazines . In 1938, the National Socialist lawyer Rudolf Klare mentioned the BIF in his article “On the Problem of Female Homosexuality” as an example of the “extensive press” of the “Organizations of Female Homosexuals” of the 1920s.

With its rediscovery since the late 1980s, international research recognizes that the BIF was the first (and until the appearance of Vice versa in 1947 the only) lesbian magazine in the world to be published, edited and written exclusively by women Florence Tamagne called this the "unique quality" of the BIF. In terms of content, the assessment of the BIF is rather cautious, Claudia Schoppmann described it in 2016 as a “monthly magazine with a low literary level”.

proof

  1. ↑ a b c d e Denis Barthel: Selli Englers Die BIF - Notes on their edition history In: Mitteilungen der Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft No. 64, 2020, pp. 35–38.
  2. ^ Christiane Leidinger : An “Illusion of Freedom” - Subculture and Organization of Lesbians, Transvestites and Gays in the Twenties. In: Ingeborg Boxhammer, Christiane Leidinger (Hrsg.): Online project lesbian history. Berlin 2008, online , accessed June 28, 2013
  3. ↑ a b c d Amy D. Young: Club Of Friends: Lesbian Periodicals In The Weimar Republic In: Mary McAuliffe, Sonja Tiernan (Eds.): Tribades, Tommies and Transgressives; History of Sexualities: Volume I, 1. 2009, ISBN 1-4438-0788-5 , p. 169.
  4. ↑ a b Heike Schader: Virile, vamps and wild violets - sexuality, desire and eroticism in the magazines of homosexual women in Berlin in the 1920s. 2004, ISBN 3-89741-157-1 , pp. 74-76.
  5. ↑ The BIF - Blätterer ideal Frauenfreundschaften, No. 2, 1927
  6. ^ A b Florence Tamagne: History of Homosexuality in Europe, 1919–1939. 2005, ISBN 978-0-87586-356-6 , p. 80.
  7. ^ Franz Scott: The lesbian woman. A representation of the opposite sexual female eroticism , 1933, p. 56
  8. ↑ Hanna Hacker: Women * and Friends. Readings “female homosexuality”, Austria 1870–1938 , 2015, ISBN 978-3-902902-34-4 , pp. 438–439
  9. ↑ Magnus Hirschfeld and Richard Linsert: Die Homosexualität , in: Schidrowitz, Leo: Sittengeschichte des Vice. The cultural epochs and their passions. Vienna / Leipzig: Verlag für Kulturforschung 1927, pp. 253–318 (here p. 301).
  10. ↑ German Law, Vol. 8, Issue 23/24, 1938, pp. 503–507
  11. ^ Claudia Schoppmann: National Socialist Sexual Policy and Female Homosexuality. 2016, ISBN 9783862268535 , pp. 168–180.